When should you stop editing and start mixing? | FAQ Friday

When should you stop editing and start mixing?
That’s a great question! I have multiple answers to this.

First of all, when I’m recording, if I need to make edits I’m sort of doing that as I go. For example if one of the guitar lines is slightly behind, I might just want to push it forward or if something’s too forward I may want to lay it back.

There are very few albums that I do where I wait to edit until the end.

If it’s me mixing my own material and if there was any editing that needed to be done, it’s usually done before I mix.

However, if you’ve been watching my live streams, you’ll notice that I’m doing quick edits as we go - I’m cleaning it up a little bit- making the signal a little bit brighter!

What happens when things get a little brighter? Well, transients get more pronounced. Snaps on snare drums, hand claps, acoustic guitars; they all become more pronounced. What happens is you get a more apparent flamming between things, so you start to get a little bit more focused in on the editing.